An improperly cleaned endoscope at Victoria General Hospital may have exposed 500 patients to infection, Vancouver health officials announced last week.
During a recent review of endoscope cleaning processes at the hospital, the Vancouver Island Health Authority discovered traces of blood inside one of 4 endoscopes used there, Martin Wale, MD, VIHA's executive medical director for quality, patient safety and infection control, told reporters. While investigators found "residual biological material on one scope," they "did not find any visible materials on any of our endoscopes."
Doctors were able to link the contaminated scope to a bacterial infection contracted by a terminally ill patient who had undergone a pancreatic endoscopy at the hospital, CTV reports. The patient later died, but VIHA officials say it was his existing illness, not the infection, that caused his death.
VIHA has notified 500 other patients who underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) between June 2008 and January 2010 of the contamination risk, offering them free testing for infections. "The risk [of infection] is less than one in 30 million," says Dr. Wale, "but we are taking a precautionary approach by notifying patients, because the infections are treatable."
Irene Tsikitas
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